Mountains, Holidays, Birthdays, Good Friends & Drive Shafts...what a week!



Happy Easter everyone!



  Coolidge, AZ.  The hometown of Waylon Jennings.  It doesn't boast much else except a super Wal-Mart, a dusty feed store ran by the southwest's answer to Wilfred Brimley and the Gallopin' Goose.  The Goose is a bar & grill located at the front of the rocky field we set up on the Monday after Easter.  It was an oasis for several of us last Saturday night after a long white knuckled mountainous drive, complete with a long 6% downgrade followed by a nice 7%.  After a tense night jump like that, most people find themselves with a sense of relief in having made it safely to the lot combined with leftover raw nerves in having to navigate hairpin steep turns...all while pulling a trailer of some sort.  As tired as you can be, you find you're too keyed up to sleep.  The Goose provided many of us a place to unwind, grab a bite of surprisingly half-way decent food & enjoy a surprisingly decent live band. 

 


Easter egg masterpieces!

 

  After a while we all headed back to the lot and I later joined Robin in her trailer to put together Easter baskets for the kids.  Since we'd done our Easter shopping a couple weeks prior, we were all set to customize each basket with candies and toys.  All the kids were very pleasantly surprised Easter morning when they discovered what the Easter bunny had left!  I was equally surprised as my nieces gave me two beautiful Easter baskets...they know all my favorite candies!  Robin surprisied me with the prettiest foil wrapped chocolates that resembled bumble bees & lady bugs...almost too pretty to unwrap!

  We first colored eggs in my house... all the kids, Robin, Simone and Mrs. Perez gathered in our trailer to color eggs.  We were more than prepared with five dozen hard boiled eggs, lots of color packs, decorations, cups, vinegar & crayons.  Lots of Easter egg masterpieces were created and we all had lots of fun with little mess.



Birthday Toot



  Robin outdid herself with an awesome Easter dinner complete with ham, two perfectly prepared  turkeys and plenty of sides.  We all ate far too much but enjoyed every minute of it!  After Easter dinner the birthday party got started.  Since the girls' birthdays are just a few days apart, I decided to have them together on Easter so everyone could attend.  Two pretty cakes and lots of presents made the girls very happy!  We all got a kick out of watching Toot open her presents and respond with "OH, WOW!" many times!  She had to put on her headbands Simone got her and of course the baby high heels from R & R were a must to sport asap!  Georgia was thrilled with the beautiful clothes her cousins got her, along with art sets, funny cards, movies and the giant life-size sock monkey.  After the party the adults hid the fancy Easter eggs all over the lot.  The older kids gave Toot the right of way many times and everyone was happy with their basket full of hard boiled and candy eggs.  All in all, it was more than a memorable day.  

  The birthday fun continued into the next day as I headed to the post office to pick up a couple of boxes from Kelly Miller.  Goodies & cards from the folks at K.M. very pleasantly surprised the girls! Thanks to everyone at K.M.! :))

  This last week Georgia's school books finally came.  She enjoys school and often gets most of her lessons done on the drives in the morning.  I check her work later in the day and most often find she's done well.  Her favorite subjects are science and language. Math is her least favorite although she does well in it.



Left to right:  Jenna, baby M, Ava, me, Toot
and in the front, Georgia



  In the middle of last week we had another night jump, this time into Black Canyon City.  I had the awesome pleasure of seeing one of my dearest & closest friends whom I haven't seen since 2007.  Time & distance do not keep Ava and I apart in spirit.  Of course with Facebook, texting and chatting on the phone we manage to keep up with each other's lives.  We also got to see one of her beautiful daughters, Jenna again and we got to meet, hold, hug & kiss her grandbaby for the first time!  Baby MacKenna is a couple months younger than Toot, and let me tell you, Toot was happy to have one of her own toddler kind in the house!  They sure seemed to enjoy each other as they played ring around the rosie and generally interacted/played in the toddler kind of way that's too cute to put into words!  Our visit only lasted for a few hours but we all sure enjoyed each other's company.  I hope it won't be another four years till we get to visit again!

  The day before yesterday found us on the side of the road with my Dodge's drive shaft hanging from the undercarriage.  Some telltale rattling gave me warning that something was wrong and before I knew it I heard the worst racket coming from under the truck.  I pulled over right away and discovered the front of the drive line lying on the pavement.  I called our mechanic and he was able to get me going to the nearest dealership to get it bolted back on.  That afternoon I called another dealership and managed to get a much needed flange that will remedy the problem.  There is a small dent in the drive line but it seems I will be ok till I can get one shipped next week.  The only thing that kept coming to mind was the title of a book Gilda Radner wrote years ago entitled, It's Always Something.

  More to come...